the greatest new year’s resolution of all time
My ambition is not just to meet Barack Obama, not just to eat a meal with him, but to introduce him to Bubble Tea, and if he’s already had it, to experience an ice cold cup with him.
This isn’t political. This is about sharing a memorable experience with a person who is shaping our world. The more we get to know each other, the better off the world will be.
Posted in Meeting People, New Resolutions.
One of our most audacious resolutions is to have Bubble Tea with Barack Obama. Now, you might say we should shoot a little lower: settle for meeting the guy, for example. But that is exactly why The Resolution exists - to do things exactly the opposite of the way most people would do them.
When we first started listing out the things we wanted to do, and the people we wanted to meet, we decided meeting celebrities wouldn’t be enough. We wanted to meet the celebrities who made a difference in the world.
“They can’t just be any celebrities!” Ryan said. “They have to be people who mean something!”
And so we removed from our list the 101 stars who flit around Nashville now and then. And at the top of the list, we put Barack Obama.
We didn’t list Barack Obama because we endorsed him, or campaigned for him in some way. He doesn’t owe us anything, and we’re not trying to promote his political positions. But, you’ve got to admit, the guy is IMPORTANT. He means something to hundreds of thousands of people.
He’s not just famous, not just powerful - he’s a meaningful character at the center of one of the most historical moments in US history.
And so our ambition was to meet Barack Obama. But we didn’t just want to meet him in a lineup, shake his hand, and move on. We’ve done that with too many celebrities. We wanted to have a moment with the guy - see what he was really like - and swap some stories. Our next thought was to meet him for breakfast.
But even eating breakfast with the man is too lame. This is the President we’re talking about - and there’s about a million people out there who want to eat breakfast with him.
So we needed an ambition that was unique to us, that would instantly stick in our minds and invigorate our pursuit of this goal. We needed an ambition that would set us apart from the pack of hangers-on, that would instantly identify us, and make us memorable.
We decided to drink Bubble Tea with Barack Obama.
We simply took two of our ambitions - to drink more Bubble Tea, and to meet Barack Obama - and combined them. What could be more perfect? What Bubble Tea experience could top an ice cold cup with the President?
And if Barack Obama has never had Bubble Tea, so much the better. We’ll be sharing with him one of our favorite past-times, and making a friend for life.
Next time: my first attempt…
Posted in Meeting People.
In the last post, I laid out the #1 principle of The Resolution:
The more audacious your goals, the more likely you are to accomplish them.
How could this be?
Tim Ferriss identifies three reasons why big goals are better than small goals. (Read his article for some great examples.)
So our primary strategy for achieving our goal is simply the audaciousness of the goal itself: Nobody else is asking Barack Obama out for Bubble Tea. And if you’re working for The President, reading through a list of dinner requests, handshake invitations, etc, etc, etc…Bubble Tea has got to stand out.
That’s our hope. The only possible way we could sit down with The President is if our goal is so ridiculously ambitious that it HAS to capture his attention.
Step #1: Make a really ambitious, audacious goal. Check.
Step #2: Start getting the President’s attention.
In order for this to happen, we’ve got to make sure everyone around him knows about us. Fortunately, Barack is setting out to be the most well-connected President in US history, and has set up the technology to do it. I started with a contact form on BarackObama.com.
Contacting Barack Obama
The question was: “How would you like to see this organization move forward in the months and years ahead? And how would you like to be engaged as a volunteer and organizer?”
My answer was: “I would like to get Bubble Tea with Barack Obama. He needs to enjoy the Bubble Tea experience, and I need to fulfill my resolution of getting more people, including the President, to experience Bubble Tea. The list of my resolutions is here…”
It’s a delicate line between being ambitious and coming off like a stalker, so I stepped carefully.
An important part of our approach is that everything we’re doing is out in the open, everything is transparent. Barack Obama has made it his ambition to run a more transparent government, and so it’s only fitting that when Barack Obama decides to start paying attention to our efforts, he’ll discover that we’ve been upfront and honest about our purpose the whole time. We want to have a memorable experience with an important figure in US history; and we have no ulterior motives, and are keeping nothing secret about this whole process.
My next stop was Change.gov, where I told my story: that I wanted to sit down with him and drink Bubble Tea. They nicely allowed me to upload a photo of some Bubble Tea with my story.
But the biggest coup of all was Barack Obama being on Twitter. This, of course, I couldn’t resist.
Barack Obama on Twitter: Would you get Bubble Tea with me sometime?
To recap: we’ve set a really ambitious resolution (Step #1), and let Barack Obama’s people know about it (Step #2).
Step #3: Spread the word. If you’d like to help us out with our task, or if you’d like to join us in drinking Bubble Tea with Barack Obama, there are a few things you can do.
Posted in Meeting People.
This is about the greatest New Year’s resolutions of all time - a list that began with a small group of people at the end of 2008, and continues to grow and spread.
Unlike most resolutions, which shoot too low, and are thus forgotten - these are resolutions that have power precisely because they are ridiculously ambitious.
This is bigger and better than a revolution. This is The Resolution.
Read The List of Resolutions, and our Manifesto.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ResolutionNow
Twitter hash tag: #TheResolutionBegins
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Hello :) I am Anna and new to the site. Right now I live in Nashville (new to the area), and I'm a stay at home mom to my baby who is 7 months old. I recently got married (New Years Eve), and just trying to get involved and meet new people!
Even though we're halfway through February (wow time flies!) I'll post what my New Years Resolutions were... though I've already failed miserably at a couple.
Number One-Blog/Journal at least once a week. I want to write here at least once a week. I think I'll start something private too because writing has always been therapeutic for me, but I have yet to begin.
UPDATE: I'm doing it (and actually writing two now)! Success :). I am new to the blogging world and just loving it. For anyone who is curious, my blogs can be found at annakauz.blogspot.com and ourvoyagetofinancialfreedom.blogspot.com
Number Two-Brush my teeth well. I know it sounds silly, but I have fallen into the habit of brushing my teeth once a day for about 30 seconds. I've decided I'm going to actually spend the time, twice a day, to brush them for about 2 minutes. Who knows, maybe next year I'll start flossing!
UPDATE: Well I'm brushing well at least once a day (gross I know), and about every other day I am in the morning. I need to make a pretty sign and put it on the mirror or something. With nowhere to go in the mornings (like school, work, etc.), I just forget!
Number Three-Exercise at least 3 times a week. I got a Wii Fit for Christmas (YAY!) and I'm hoping to use it for at least 1/2 hour three times a week. I really need to work off this baby fat, and sitting around, doing nothing isn't helping.
UPDATE: Of course, I failed! I actually did really well, but couldn't stand being weighed every day. Then I got sick, and quit for a week, and never started again. With the nice weather last weekend, I walked for a couple of days with the baby, but that trail hasn't seen me since!
Number Four-PORTION SIZES! Phil and I eat pretty well, but we eat WAY WAY WAY to much! So, I've started cooking for two, or if I do cook more (for leftovers), I make sure we have leftovers. We kind of started this one before the New Year too, but not seriously. I mean we had a wedding and all with a buffet I wanted to enjoy! I've been doing a little reading on the subject and definitely need to do more. I think I'm going to invest in a couple healthy eating cookbooks.
UPDATE: We've been doing really well! I just dish out our food so that you get what you get! I haven't done any reading yet... I think I'll add it to the list for my next library trip.
I've also added one more resolution... I guess you could call it that. We're going to be DEBT FREE! We have started Dave Ramsey's program, took his class (FPU) in the fall, and are working on our debt snowball! I am blogging about the experience at ourvoyagetofinancialfreedom.blogspot.com. I don't think this is really one we can fail at... we've gotten rid of credit cards and aren't getting any more debt, so I'm very hopeful and optimistic!
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